Available as a digital storybook and an animation, narrated by the children of R/GA’s creatives, From My Window is designed to help kids understand what’s going on during lockdown.
It’s told from the perspective of a chick stuck in a coop – something many of us can relate to right now – and wondering why the world outside has gone so quiet. But it doesn’t dwell too long on the unsettling side of quarantine, instead focusing on the positives – people having fun at home, doing responsible social distancing in the supermarkets, and the hero healthcare workers looking after us all.
According to R/GA, the story started as an internal project to help the parents in the company explain the situation in a more optimistic way, with language that’s easy for children to understand.
R/GA London creative director Igor Pancaldi created the illustrations, while senior copywriter James Greening handled the words.
A post shared by R/GA by Design (@rgabydesign) on Apr 8, 2020 at 2:17pm PDT
From My Window might be aimed at children, but there’s a reassuring message in there, however old you are. It’s something that’s sorely needed at a time like this.
Designer Tom Dixon describes how a motorcycle crash forced him to abandon a career as a bass guitarist in the latest episode of Dezeen’s Face to Face podcast.
In the Face to Face series, Dezeen’s founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs sits down with leading architects and designers to discuss their lives.
British designer Tom Dixon features in the latest episode of Dezeen’s Face to Face podcast. Photo is by Peer Lindgreen
For this episode, Fairs sat down with British designer Tom Dixon at his combined office, showroom, shop and restaurant at The Coal Office, a Victorian structure that previously hosted a nightclub in London’s Kings Cross.
One of the few British designers to become a household name, Dixon produces furniture, lighting and accessories under his own brand name. He describes the Tom Dixon brand ethos as “expressive minimalism”. This involves “trying to reduce the object as much as possible whilst maintaining its character”.
Early creative streak
Yet he left school with only one qualification in pottery and worked in the music business and in nightclubs before turning his hand to producing hand-made metal furniture.
Born in Tunisia, Dixon spent his early childhood in Morocco before moving to London with his family at the age of six. While he admits to not having been a good student, it was at school that Dixon discovered his creative streak.
Dixon is the founder of his eponymous brand Tom Dixon which produces furniture, lighting and accessories
“I managed to fill my time, not with the stuff I should have been learning but tinkering around in the ceramics and life drawing departments and that’s where I first encountered the joy of creation,” he said in the interview.
When a first motorcycle accident put an end to a brief stint at Chelsea School of Art, he delved into the world of music, playing bass in disco-punk band Funkapolitan.
Opening for the Clash in New York
After signing a record deal, Funkapolitan enjoyed moderate success, touring, playing Glastonbury and supporting bands including The Clash.
“The people that went to see the Clash were punks and we were disco,” Dixon said, recalling a gig in New York where the audience threw bottles and spat at the band. “That was a pretty scary experience. It was quite nasty but character-forming, you know. I was always a shy boy.”
Although Dixon is known for his work in design, he originally tried to make it in the music industry as a bass player in disco-punk band Funkapolitan
While he wasn’t a fan at the time, the DIY ethos of the punk scene influenced the way he approached the beginning of his career.
“The thing about British music is that you can actually be shit,” he said in the interview. “As long as you got a unique attitude, people will collect around that. You don’t have to be naturally gifted, you don’t have to be naturally polished and you can teach yourself how to do something.”
Welding with scrap metal
After a second motorcycle crash ended his music career, Dixon started producing welded furniture made from scrap metal, which he sold to people he’d met on the London nightclub scene.
The iconic S-Chair was later produced by Italian furniture brand Cappellini
“I get bored so easily, so there was something about the speed of action in metal that really appealed to me,” he explained. “Peering through the goggles at the fire and seeing the molten metal fuse together and then suddenly having a structure that you could sit on.”
Dixon started to gain prominence as part of the ad-hoc Creative Salvage movement, alongside Ron Arad, Mark Brazier-Jones and other London designers who produced hand-made objects from found materials.
The iconic S-Chair, featuring a sinuous steel frame with straw upholstery, was designed around this time and later became the first Tom Dixon piece to be added to the catalogue of Italian furniture brand Cappellini.
Dixon later worked as creative director at retailer Habitat before setting up his eponymous brand.
“I had 10 years of life in a corporation,” he explained. “I’ll always be grateful because I learned so much but I was hungry to design again rather than telling other people how to design.”
Dixon describes the brand’s style as “expressive minimalism”
“I’d managed to meet some of the great designers of that time, including [Achille] Castiglioni and Verner Panton, and managed to commission lots of people like the Bouroullecs and other younger designers,” he added. You know, I was a bit jealous of them, so it was time to start again.”
Dixon now employs around 140 people at his London headquarters and sells around 1,000 different products, including fragrances and textiles, in 75 countries. Last year he opened The Manzoni, a second combined restaurant and showroom in Milan and recent ventures include a collaboration with Swedish synthesizer outfit Teenage Engineering.
“I don’t want to be like in the music business where you have to play your greatest hits again and again,” he said, before heading off for a jam session with a Danish techno musician.
The podcast features original music composed by Japanese designer and sound artist Yuri Suzuki.
Face to Face is sponsored by Twinmotion, the real-time architectural visualisation solution that can create immersive photo and video renders in seconds.
How often did we hear the capitalist’s of the world say “We can’t just stop all our factories and businesses to stop global warming.” Meet the year 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic that has us all shut down, literally. While we stay at home and flatten the curve, we need to focus on what can we do after this ends. One solution is to promote the trend of green living! Vertical Gardens, urban farms, sustainable housing are the terms the millennials are understanding and living upto. Architectural designs play a major role in promoting them by having the green built into your setup, giving a cool relief to the increasing urban jungle. This curated collection is sure to inspire you to add a small green space in your home, to begin with. After all, slow and steady wins the race against global warming!
Danish kolonihaver, or “colony gardens” are communal groupings of leisure lots—each complete with a little cabin—that are peppered around the urban and periurban corners of the country. These structures captured by Henry Do show how the colony is not just there to save space or look futuristic, they actually serve a purpose for the citizens of the Dutch capital. They’re similar to allotment gardens, multi-year land rentals in a dedicated area, leased for the express purpose of gardening. When applied for, local residents can rent out the lots if they are looking to grow their own gardens. Due to the way each plot of land is set up, it gives a long vertical area for people to garden, as opposed to regular subdivisions which just provide a very small lengthwise area. Sounds like the perfect summer vacation!
Shilda winery in Kakheti, Georgia by X-Architecture is one of those places where you can literally lose yourself in the surrounding hills! Made to resemble the sloping vineyards, this design provides ample natural lighting to your living space while making the most of your surroundings.
Meet the Villa Vals, designed by Bjarne Mastenbroek and Christian Müller, respectively of the architectural offices SeARCH and CMA. Their design plan was to completely integrate the villa into the landscape to avoid disturbing the unspoiled nature. That is why access to the villa is only possible via the nearby wooden Graubünder shed, through an underground tunnel that runs straight through the mountainside. The façade of the house is slightly slanted, adding to the view of the mountain scenery across the valley opposite the house.
The Faroe Islands, a green country between Norway and Iceland consists of 18 islands spread across the ocean. This place is a remote, peaceful and quiet place with its pristine nature. Pyramid-shaped mountains stripped of long fjords, old churches with roofs covered with grass, lakes, stunning waterfalls and colorful houses in small villages overlooking the ocean. This place has maintained the perfect balance between civilization and nature.
Meet the Dune House by Studio Vural, a seaside holiday dwelling that is carved into sand dunes and operates without relying on public utilities. Using a vast solar field and miniature wind turbines, this house produces more energy than it consumes!
The AMKC House by Dannel Reskala of Sonny Sutanto Architect is proof that green architecture can be modern architecture as well! The wire mesh creates an enclosure for the plants to grow, provide natural lighting while co-existing with the urban environment.
The hexagonal pyramids on the roof of this museum are now covered in a layer of grass, helping the building settle into its marshland environment in the Netherlands. Rotterdam firm Studio Marco Vermeulen carried out the renovation of the Biesbosch Museum – a building with multiple pitched roofs. The holistic nature of the design minimizes energy consumption, with glazing fitted with heat-resistant glass that eliminates the need for blinds. Meanwhile, the earthworks on the north-western side and the green roof serve as additional insulation and a heat buffer.
Designed by Singapore studio Chang Architects, this home was created to accommodate a multi-generation family with space for future additions if the children marry. The concept behind the project looks to enhance livings spaces within a tropical climate through the implementation of well-designed communal spaces, connecting family members. The design creates a tropical haven, bringing greenery and light into every space. An abundance of greenery is also implemented at every opportunity, creating a house that directly connects to nature and brings a certain vibrancy to the indoor and outdoor spaces. With the central pool space framed by cascading planters and green stepped decks, the overall planning is to have passive cooling to create a healthier living environment.
MVRDV’s design for Valley emphasizes the contrast between the corporate history and the more residential future of the Zuidas. Its offices boast high floor-to-ceiling windows, large, brightly lit floorplates and full-service amenities. The residential levels have large openable windows and sliding doors for outdoor spaces integrated within the stone facades. Outdoor ceilings and terraces are clad in natural stone as well, as are the fixed, automatically hydrated planters of varying heights that facilitate Valley’s distinct green appearance. Full glass railings protect residents against wind and sound without impeding on their panoramic views.
Houses in rural Vietnam are planned around common spaces like gardens, ponds, lakes where people connect together. In urban areas, there is a lack of community spaces affecting the users and their connectivity with each other. Ho Khue Architects designed the main concept of the structure from terraced fields. The units are stacked on each other with stepped terraces which provides plenty of light to the apartment units. On the inner sides, atriums are provided so as to get natural light and air ventilation.
Reality is stranger than fiction they say. Not sure about being stranger but it surely is more environment friendly in this case! Hobbiton in New Zealand lets you go visit and even stay in the shire.
For more such exciting and sustainable designs, check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this series!
London-based architect Stiliyana Minkovska has designed a trio of undulating birthing chairs called Ultima Thule, which offer women a “sanctuary-like” environment during childbirth.
Minkovska‘s alternative birthing suite, called Ultima Thule, comprises a collection of three chairs that are designed to support different stages of childbirth.
The project was conceived as an alternative to “hostile” hospital maternity wards, which, as Minkovska told Dezeen, made her feel like a “medical object” during her own birthing process.
Minkovska has designed an alternative birthing suite made up of three undulating chairs
When giving birth to her daughter, Minkovska explained how she found respite in “exploring the farthest imaginable place”.
This, for her, was “ultima thule” – a term derived from Latin that translates to “a distant unknown region” or “beyond the known world”.
Inspired by methods such as hypnobirthing and water-births, Minkovska’s designed Ultima Thule birthing suite as a “sanctuary-like” space where the mother can have greater control over her delivery and reproductive health.
The chairs are designed to create a relaxing environment reminiscent of “a distant unknown region”
“My own voyage into motherhood came into focus during childbirth, when physical sensations gave way to an interstellar experience,” the designer explained.
“I felt like a medical object during the birth of my daughter, therefore my urge as a designer and architect was to re-imagine the birthing environments within the institution of the hospital, where the majority of women within the western society reproduce.”
The Labour Silla chair is designed for the initial stage of childbirth
The first chair, Labour Silla, is designed for the initial stage of childbirth, when the mother-to-be goes into labour and the contractions start.
Aiming to both empower and comfort the woman using it, its ergonomic and “elasto-mechanical” qualities respond to the multiple demands of the pregnant body, enabling the mother to prepare for parturition.
The undulating form of the chair encourages the woman to sit, kneel, squat, rest, lean and crawl until she finds a comfortable position.
The Parturition Stool is designed for the birth-giving stage
The second piece of furniture, Parturition Stool, is designed as a tandem for the birth-giving stage. Its step-like design allows the woman to take a squatting position at the bottom half of the chair while a second person can support them from behind.
According to Minkovska, this squat position reduces the risks of tear, episiotomy, C-section, medical interventions and forceps deliveries, as opposed to the traditional supine position, which can also extend the delivery time.
“The birthing scene has evolved, but sadly the elements supporting these techniques have not,” she said. “They are dated and lack the progressiveness needed to accommodate the broad range of birthing techniques, such as hypnobirthing or water birth.”
“The hospital can feel like a baby factory – you could deliver and be home within the same day,” she continued. “I think it is a shock for the body and the maternal biological system.”
“Through the Ultima Thule project, I recognised that birth is not a universal or monolithic experience, hence the flexible nature of the designs I have proposed.”
The Solace Chaise chair is designed for postpartum or recovery use
The third piece, named Solace Chaise, is a chaise lounge for postpartum or recovery use. Designed as a relaxing “secured cocoon”, the chair offers the woman a private space for after every birth experience.
“Not all women have straightforward pregnancies, and therefore not all have so-called ‘natural’ births. I would like all women, regardless their life story, to feel included within the project,” she said.
“This includes women who have decided to either willingly or unwillingly to terminate their pregnancies, women who have had still births as well as women who have undergone miscarriages,” she continued.
“In our current socio-political climate, birth is a cultural conditioning. We are told what is right and wrong, but we are not taught how to protect ourselves and our well-being. I think design is a powerful tool for doing so, for liberating and empowering.”
Minkovska’s Ultima Thule suite was on display at London’s Design Museum
Minkovska hopes that the chairs can become the new normal, being used by women and birthing mothers in private hospitals such as the Lindo Wing at St Mary’s Hospital and the Portland hospital in London.
“I think that our maternity centres and wards require strong design attention and female-centred qualities through light, sound and material palettes,” said the designer.
“I have had some incredible feedback by mothers, doulas, health care professionals, doctors and midwives who agree that we need to have human-centred design at the core of our most humane institutions, especially at the sector where life begins.”
Mále Uribe Forés reimagined salt as a precious material, while Marta Giralt made the microscopic “wonder material” graphene visible and Robert Johnson gave value to the fat waste produced in commercial kitchens across London.
I recommend wearing the earbuds upside down so you look like you’ve got Pikachu ears…
Razer’s limited edition Pikachu earbuds are awesome for all the right reasons. Not only are they an absolutely delightful looking pair of familiar yellow earbuds, they even push the limit by coming in a Pokéball shaped charging case – which is even more exceptional because it’s a ‘charging’ case and Pikachu’s an electric type Pokémon!
The adorable earbuds are essentially a limited variant of Razer’s Hammerhead earphones, but in yellow, and with a Pikachu graphic replacing the Razer triple-snake logo. The truly wireless earbuds dock magnetically into a Pokéball-shaped charging case, which may not be tiny enough to fit into your pocket, but which noob carries Pokéballs in their pockets? The earbud case has a tiny lanyard that’s perfect for strapping around your hand as you walk around and get jealous looks from fellow Pokémon lovers.
The earbuds provide 3 hours of playback time, and the spherical case supplies them with an additional 15 hours… you could say that your earphones are ‘resting’ within their Pokéball. The only bit of disappointing news is that the earbuds will be available only in China, via the Tmall e-commerce store starting 16th April.
Kafa has bold letterforms and stout strokes that imply a powerful design with an inescapable visual presence.
Originally designed as a form of protest against politics of hate and xenophobia, this typeface by Nadine Chahine continues to convey its activist voice in political messages, posters, and banners in uprisings throughout the Middle East. Kafa visually disrupts and intervenes to capture readers’ attention and trigger their emotions.
Available in a single style — Black — Kafa’s flow is a unique amalgam of dynamic cursive shapes with steady horizontal and vertical strokes. The short stems, the minimum variations of descender heights, and the less variable loop and tooth heights create a sense of assertion and determination.
Of particular note is that Kafa sustains a smooth continual legibility despite its narrow counterforms, low contrast, and heavy shapes. The abrupt angular and pointed stroke endings metaphorically radiate an aggressiveness that elegantly connotes anger and frustration in its visual representation, and dovetails with Chahine’s ultimate aim. Despite these brusque formal qualities, Kafa sustains refined and consistent curves and details.
This noble design proves not only that actions speak louder than words, but also that typefaces can amplify voices of dissent and resilience.
Architecture firm Woods Bagot has designed a modular system that can adapt apartments to make them suited to working, playing and cooking, as people spend more time at home because of the coronavirus.
AD-APT is a series of adjustable walls and screens that can be used to divide an open-plan apartment into a number of dedicated spaces, including a home office, exercise room, entertainment area and bedrooms.
Woods Bagot developed the scheme in response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has meant that a number of people are self-isolating and getting accustomed to working from home.
“As more people become comfortable with working remotely, they will expect to be able to do so more often,” said firm principal Simon Saint.
“This will change the way we design and use our workplaces, schools and homes. While we expect the physical changes to offices and classrooms to happen over time, the changes to our homes could be far more rapid.”
In Day Mode the two moveable booths are separated to form a home office with a desk and a living and dining room
AD-APT is designed to be rearranged throughout the day to meet the demands of the residents as they work, play and learn from home.
Woods Bagot recognises there is a number of ways people adapt to working from home, but has identified two of the most common.
The first, Split Shift Home, is designed for a couple with children. It imagines that one parent works in the morning, while the other cares for the children. In the afternoon the parents switch roles.
The second called Double Desk Home is a mode that could be used by professional couples or flatmates that share a makeshift desk or dining table, in which one person is relegated to work elsewhere.
“While these two homes seem to have very different needs, they must both support different activities,” Saint added. “Each needs comfortable, acoustically separated places for focused work, education, calls and entertainment.”
For the evening hours, the flexible volumes can divide the open apartment into three rooms.
While AD-APT can be configured to consider a resident’s amenities, the studio has imagined an example layout to showcase how a home could function.
In the proposal, an entry hallway creates space for storage while the rest of the apartment is formed by two movable booths and a fixed bathroom unit. Around the apartment are a number of storage and space-saving solutions, including furniture that folds out from the walls.
It also would have a porch that could be used for outdoor entertainment and exercise needs. The studio envisions aeroponic planters on the terrace so residents can grow their own food without soil.
Drawings of AD-APT show the modular system in three arrangements that correspond with the course of a family’s day.
In Day Mode the two moveable booths are separated to form two spaces. One is a home office with a desk that can tuck into the wall when not in use. The other is a large living and dining area with an eating surface that folds out from the wall.
For the evening hours the flexible volumes can divide the open apartment into three rooms. The size of the living room from Day Mode decreases to make room for a second bedroom, while the home office converts into a master bedroom.
Play mode allows for a large open space for entertaining
In the Play Mode arrangement, the two moveable units are pushed up against the perimeter walls to form one large area for entertainment use, where people can gather.
Added features such as the aeroponic cultivation system and extra storage for essential items, like food, lessen people’s need to source services and items from external systems, as they can grow it themselves.
A number of have imagined new products and systems in response to the outbreak, such as Danish startup Stykka which designed a temporary cardboard desk and Shift Architecture Urbanism which developed a model for an outdoor market that enforces social distancing guidelines.
Clue: It’s less of a chair and more of a really well-designed hammock.
Designed as a means of public seating that could be accessed when needed, discarded when unwanted, and not abused by people trying to sleep on it, the Flair is a polymer-sheet that is part origami, part furniture, and complete creativity. The Flair, a portmanteau of Flat and Chair, is made from a creased polypropylene sheet that supports its ability to have live-hinges. It suspends on a wall thanks to rivets and hooks at the back that allow the Flair to hang onto the wall like a painting. The wall comes with three sets of rivets, one static, and two that allow you to hook the Flair in its seating position, and in its closed position.
Using the Flair is as simple as using a folding chair. Once you get the knack of it, you don’t need to be shown twice. When closed, the Flair sits flat against a wall, practically hidden from view, thanks to its translucency. When opened, each Flair sits precisely one person and adjusts its curvature to, well, to your curvature… just like a hammock. And like most public seating that discourages behavior like sleeping on the benches at night (more accurately known as defensive design), the Flair’s shape allows you only to sit on it (or perhaps stand too, but I wouldn’t recommend that). Besides being one of the lightest chairs I’ve ever seen (and hands down the flattest), cleaning the Flair is as easy as taking a cloth to it and wiping the dust off it with a singular motion!
Limited to 500 pieces, a contemporary adaptation of a rare watch from 1943
Audemars Piguet produced only 307 chronographs between the 1930s and 1950s. Two years ago, the luxury Swiss watch manufacturer reacquired one of those rare wristwatches at a Phillips auction—for CHF 340,000. This unique piece (crafted in 1943) informs the brand new, limited edition [Re]master01 Selfwinding Chronograph—a “remastering” of the historic design, not a reissue. Aesthetically, the timepiece adheres to its inspiration source with great success; this isn’t another vintage nod but a contemporary retelling of a story that simply must be told, punctuated with precise, clever and colorful details. Inside, the brand’s most recent technological developments bring the watch to life.
For the artistic adaptation of 1943 to 2020, Audemars Piguet increased their canvas from the original 36mm case size to a 40mm one. Perhaps the adoption of the vintage “Audemars, Piguet & Co Genève” logo represents the most subtly spectacular commitment to the original, but the exquisite two-tone case (with caseband, lugs, and caseback in stainless steel; hour and minute hands, bezel, pushers and crown made of 19-karat rose gold) epitomizes the translation. Impeccable flourishes—blue chronograph hands and tachymeter scale; the red 45 in the chronograph minutes subdial—pop off the vertical blushing on the yellow gold-toned dial (with an undeniable champagne glow).
Underneath the handsome, legible mid-20th century design, Audemars Piguet placed the caliber 4409 in-house, selfwinding chronograph mechanism. This is a modified version of the caliber 4401 movement that debuted within last year’s CODE 11.59 chronograph. It furthers their commitment to technical mastery.
Audemars Piguet initially intended to use the [Re]master01 Selfwinding Chronograph to celebrate their forthcoming Bjarke Ingels-designed museum in Le Brassus, Switzerland (which holds the inspiration piece) though the museum’s opening has now been postponed. In a limited edition of 500, the [Re]master01 will retail for $53,100, through Audemars Piguet boutiques only.
The architecture community has paid tribute to William “Bill” Menking, co-founder of The Architect’s Newspaper, who has died aged 72 of cancer.
Menking co-founded The Architect’s Newspaper (AN) in 2003 with Diana Darling and was the editor-in-chief when he died on 11 April.
His death after a long battle with cancer has triggered an outpouring of tributes from architects, academics and journalists around the world.
“Menking was an invaluable part of the architecture community of New York as well as nationally and internationally,” said Matt Shaw in an obituary for AN.
His “zest for life” and “knack for being in the centre of the action” were reflected on by the former AN executive editor.
“Menking was a central figure in the architecture culture”
“This is terribly sad news, and a huge loss,” tweeted New York critic Paul Goldberger. “Bill Menking was a central figure in the architecture culture, liked and respected by just about everyone. And AN is a creation that all of us have come to value, and to need. RIP.”
“The architecture world is mourning another loss: Bill (William) Menking, historian, writer, critic, founder + editor Archpaper + a loved Pratt Institute professor,” tweeted Harriet Harriss, dean of Pratt Institute School of Architecture.
Menking remembered for “ability to connect” community
“Oh this is heartbreaking,” tweeted Brenden Cormier, senior design curator of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. “I met Bill in Lisbon in 2013 – was immediately blown away by his energy, passion for architecture culture and ability to connect the huge network of people he had met along the way.”
“He was incredibly generous to me, and for that I’m forever grateful. RIP,” he added.
Architect James Timberlake also posted condolences for Menking’s family on behalf of his architecture firm Kieran Timberlake.
“Kieran Timberlake sends our condolences to the staff at #AN and his daughter Halle; he was a terrific collaborator, critic, and tireless advocate for great design, the environment, and how architecture could improve the social good #WilliamMenking will be sorely and sadly missed,” he tweeted.
Menking was born in 1947 in Puerto Rico and raised in California. He studied architecture and urban studies the University of California Berkeley and in Florence, Italy where he met members of the radical design movement.
After his studies, Menking worked as a labour organiser in New York City, at Studio 54, and as an art director for the 1980s television show Miami Vice. He moved to London to study at the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London and wrote for British architectural publications including The Architects’ Journal and Building Design, before founding AN.
Photograph is courtesy of The Architect’s Newspaper.
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